truth

Nida (1947, p. 230) says this about the translation of the concept of “truth”: “The words for ‘truth’ and ‘true’ are not always the most readily discovered in aboriginal languages. In some instances the only expression which corresponds to ‘true’ is something like ‘it happened.’ A falsehood is something that ‘did not happen.’ In a good many languages the meaning of ‘truth’ is expressed by the words signifying ‘straight’ and ‘direct.’ Untruth is accordingly ‘crookedness.’ An abstract noun such as English “truth” is quite difficult to find in some instances. Only an expression such as ‘true statement’ or ‘true word’ will be found to correspond to English ‘truth.’”

The Greek, Latin, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).

Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”

The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John:

“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6) becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )

The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) has followed a somewhat similar path to the Malay committee 50 years earlier in the gospel of John. In John 1 it translates “truth as “God’s nature,” in John 3 as “God’s will,” in John 8 as “God’s reality,” in John 14 as “encountering God,” and in John 16 as “God’s truth.”

complete verse (2 Timothy 3:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Timothy 3:7:

  • Uma: “They continually want to hear teaching, but their hearts are never clear to know the true teaching.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “They just listen to whoever teaches them but they cannot distinguish the true teaching.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They are always asking for teaching, but they do not understand the true doctrine.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They are continually learning a new teaching, but they are not able-to-distinguish the true teaching.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Women like these, they are always wanting to listen to teaching but, well, they can’t comprehend the truth.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “These are women who want to know whatever new teaching there is. But concerning the word they study, never do their hearts find the true word.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Timothy 3:7

Who will listen to anybody is literally “always being taught” (compare New Revised Standard Version “always being instructed”). This of course refers to the women. One wonders why this should be considered a weakness; shouldn’t this be a positive thing instead? Two things should be mentioned to clarify the issue. (1) In 1 Tim 2.11 women are instructed to learn in silence; in other words they should not be asking any questions. From this we can deduce that there is a negative attitude toward the full education of women. (2) Perhaps the people doing the instructing are the false teachers themselves, and they are taking advantage of the desire of these women to learn. It is very likely that monetary considerations are involved. But more importantly, these women are being taught heresies, and no matter how much they learn or how long they are taught, they can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth (for which see 1 Tim 2.4). Truth is a general term that in this context refers to the gospel message itself, together with the teachings and doctrines that are derived from it. Obviously it is not this kind of teaching that the false teachers are sharing with these women.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• These women are always trying to learn new things, but they are never able to know (or, discover) God’s true message (or, doctrine).

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Timothy 3:7

3:7a

who are always learning: The phrase always learning indicates that these women often listened to people who taught about religion. Because they often sinned, they kept looking for something new and different. So they continued to listen to the false teachers to learn their new doctrines. Good News Translation says: “always trying to learn.” This statement does not mean that these women were slow to learn in the sense that they were mentally dull or unintelligent.

3:7b

but: Here the Berean Standard Bible has translated the Greek conjunction kai as but. Usually kai is translated as “and.” However, in this context it signals an unexpected result, so it may also be translated “but.” It is recommended that you follow the majority of modern English versions and translate the conjunction as “but.”

never able to come to a knowledge of the truth: These women were not able to recognize the true teaching of the gospel. They had heard some of the truth, but it had been mixed with false ideas, and they were not able to recognize what was true from what was false.

to come to a knowledge of: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as to come to a knowledge of also means “to recognize” or “to distinguish.”

the truth: In this context the phrase the truth refers to the gospel.

© 2003 by SIL International®

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.